Evje Church ( no, Evje kirke) is a

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

of the

Church of Norway The Church of Norway ( nb, Den norske kirke, nn, Den norske kyrkja, se, Norgga girku, sma, Nöörjen gærhkoe) is an evangelical Lutheran denomination of Protestant Christianity and by far the largest Christian church in Norway. The church b ...

Evje og Hornnes Municipality Evje og Hornnes is a municipality in Agder county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Setesdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Evje. Other villages in the municipality include Åneland, Dåsnesm ...

Agder Agder is a county (''fylke'') and traditional region in the southern part of Norway. The county was established on 1 January 2020, when the old Vest-Agder and Aust-Agder counties were merged. Since the early 1900s, the term Sørlandet ("south ...

county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. It is located at the north end of the village of Evje. It is one of the churches for the Evje og Hornnes

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

which is part of the

Otredal prosti This list of churches in Agder og Telemark is a list of the Church of Norway churches in the Diocese of Agder og Telemark in Agder and Vestfold og Telemark counties in southern Norway. The diocese is based at the Kristiansand Cathedral in the c ...

(

deanery A deanery (or decanate) is an ecclesiastical entity in the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion, the Evangelical Church in Germany, and the Church of Norway. A deanery is either the jurisdiction or residenc ...

) in the

Diocese of Agder og Telemark The Diocese of Agder og Telemark ( no, Agder og Telemark bispedømme) is a diocese of the Church of Norway, covering all of Agder county and most of Vestfold og Telemark county in Norway. The cathedral city is Kristiansand, Norway's fifth larges ...

. The white, wooden church was built in a Swiss chalet style with a

cruciform Cruciform is a term for physical manifestations resembling a common cross or Christian cross. The label can be extended to architectural shapes, biology, art, and design. Cruciform architectural plan Christian churches are commonly described ...

design in 1891 using plans drawn up by an unknown

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

. The church seats about 450 people.

History

The earliest existing historical records of the church date back to the year 1328, but the church was not new that year. The old

stave church A stave church is a medieval wooden Christian church building once common in north-western Europe. The name derives from the building's structure of post and lintel construction, a type of timber framing where the load-bearing ore-pine posts a ...

was likely built in the 13th century. In 1660, the old building was heavily renovated and rebuilt. It originally had a hallway around the exterior which was removed at that time. In 1814, this church served as an

election church An election church ( no, valgkirke) is a term used for approximately 300 churches in Norway that were used as polling stations during the elections to the Norwegian Constituent Assembly at Eidsvoll in 1814. This was Norway's first national election ...

( no, valgkirke). Together with more than 300 other parish churches across Norway, it was a polling station for elections to the 1814

Norwegian Constituent Assembly The Norwegian Constituent Assembly (in Norwegian ''Grunnlovsforsamlingen'', also known as ''Riksforsamlingen'') is the name given to the 1814 constitutional assembly at Eidsvoll in Norway, that adopted the Norwegian Constitution and formalised th ...

which wrote the

Constitution of Norway nb, Kongeriket Norges Grunnlov nn, Kongeriket Noregs Grunnlov , jurisdiction =Kingdom of Norway , date_created =10 April - 16 May 1814 , date_ratified =16 May 1814 , system =Constitutional monarchy , b ...

. This was Norway's first national elections. Each

church parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

was a constituency that elected people called "electors" who later met together in each county to elect the representatives for the assembly that was to meet in

Eidsvoll Eidsvoll (; sometimes written as ''Eidsvold'') is a municipality in Akershus in Viken county, Norway. It is part of the Romerike traditional region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Sundet. General information E ...

later that year. In 1834, the old stave church was torn down and replaced with a new

church which stood about to the west of the old church. The new building was a small

timber-framed Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...

church that was built by

Anders Thorsen Syrtveit Anders Thorsen Syrtveit, also known as Anders Thorson Syrtveit and Anders Thorsen Solberg, (born 1778 in Iveland, died 1857 in Evje) was a Norwegian builder and architect. Syrtveit also went by the name "Anders kirkebygger" () and is especially k ...

. The new building was consecrated on 6 December 1835. In 1876 it received a new church bell (from

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...

in England). In 1891, the church was deemed too small for the parish, so it was torn down and a larger building was constructed on the same site, reusing some of the materials from the previous building. The new building was constructed by builder Ludvig Karlsen from

Stokken Stokken is a former municipality in the old Aust-Agder county in Norway. The municipality existed from 1919 until 1962 when it was merged into the newly-created Moland municipality. Today, the area is a part of the present-day municipality of ...

. The new building is strictly-speaking a

design since there are shallow transverse arms on either side of the building, but practically speaking, it is a long church design since all of the pews face the same direction. The church was consecrated on 16 December 1891 by the

Bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

Johan Christian Heuch Johan Christian Heuch or J. C. Heuch (23 March 1838–13 February 1904) was a Norwegian bishop in the Church of Norway and politician for the Conservative Party. Personal life He was born in Kragerø, Norway as the son of merchant and po ...

. There are no old historic or artistic pieces in the church, everything in it was new when it was built in 1891.

Media gallery

FV306 Evje kirke.jpg Evje og Hornnes IMG 7507 evje kirke rk 84108.JPG Evje kirke, Evje kyrkje, Aust-Agder - Riksantikvaren-T199 01 0048.jpg Evje kirke, Evje kyrkje, Aust-Agder - Riksantikvaren-T199 01 0050.jpg Evje, Christiansand - no-nb digimanus 60654 (cropped).jpg, View of the old church (1835-1891) Evje altertavle NF.1910-0374.jpg, Altar table from the old Evje stave church

References

{{use dmy dates, date=January 2021 Evje og Hornnes Churches in Agder Wooden churches in Norway Cruciform churches in Norway 19th-century Church of Norway church buildings Churches completed in 1891 13th-century establishments in Norway Norwegian election church

History

Media gallery

See also

References